College Baseball

UCF Falls In Game Two Versus Rice

The Conference USA title will come down to the last day of the regular season as No. 4 Rice topped the No. 13 UCF baseball team 9-2 in game two on Friday.

Aiming for their first C-USA title in program history, the Knights will take on the Owls (38-15, 16-7) at 1 p.m. Saturday. UCF won the first game of the series 8-6 earlier Friday evening. That game began Thursday and was suspended due to rain.

Playing in front of 2,687 fans, the fifth-largest crowd in program history and most attended game against an opponent outside the state of Florida, the Knights (41-13, 16-7) were unable to break through against Rice starter Austin Kubitza, who went 6 2/3 innings and allowed just two runs on four hits.

The lone runs of the game for UCF came in the fourth inning when Jeramy Matos ripped his eighth double of the year down the left-field line to score the hustling Ryan Breen from first. After Matos took third on an error by the left fielder, Travis Shreve smashed his fourth hit of the series up the middle to score Matos and tie the game at 2-2.

Rice scored twice in the top of the fifth to take the lead for good.

News & Notes:

-Richardson led the game off with a hit-by-pitch, the 29th time he has been plunked this year and the 59th of his career.

-Sweeney and Richardson upped their stolen base totals to 20 and 22, respectively.